UPDATE: Lee Jennings Is A Baylor Bear

by PB @ BON on Jul 24, 2007 5:41 PM CDT in Football Comment 24 comments

Of all the WTF moments I've experienced since I started this blog, this has to rank right up there at the top. Lee Jennings, the "Texas fan" at the end of the Texas NCAA 2008 commercial is an LA-based actor who graduated from Baylor University. His name? Toby Meuli.

We didn't believe this at first, either, but BearMeat confirmed this via email with the actor, while digging up both his Baylor theater page and IMDB profile.

Meuli emailed the BearMeat editors:

In Baylor-Baptist fashion, I must openly confess that it is me in the Texas EA Sports commercial. Putting on that burnt orange shirt after spending four years despising the Horns has been my greatest acting challenge to date. Here's to the day when I can do an EA Sports commercial for Baylor Football. Sic'em.

Also, you'll like this, Matt Leinart shot his EA commercial the same day I did and we shared a dressing room. He was an incredibly nice guy and we swapped some losing-to-Texas stories; I think he hates them more than I do.

Confirmations abound: A Baylor grad is "Lee Jennings" and Matt Leinart's still wearing panties about the Rose Bowl.

And then there's EA Sports, or whatever advertising agency they hired to put together these spots. They had a commercial. They needed a Longhorn fan at the end. Said Longhorn fan needed to say about six words. While standing there in an orange shirt.

And they hired a Baylor grad.

It's sorta understandable given that there are only about 3,000,000 graduates from the University, and probably only 65,000 in the LA area. Still...

--PB--

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SIC EM BEARS!

Just like our friends South of the Border do the work that Americans just don't want to do, so too do the Fightin' Bears of Baylor U. pick up all the loose acting jobs in LA when they call for a LongHorn. Look for a Baylor grad to play Darrell Royal in the upcoming TriStar Pictures Release: "2.5 Titles"

You owe us now, PB, both for this research and for your upcoming chum video. We will send you an invoice.

Sic 'Em? Why the hell not?

by BearMeat on Jul 24, 2007 5:55 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Fair enough

I'm wondering, though, who at EA Sports is gonna get my "RETURN TO SENDER" invoice for the game I just ordered.

--PB--

by PB @ BON on Jul 24, 2007 5:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It gets worse...

... apparently this douche was on an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Stop going on that crap if your going to represent this school, loser.

by Longhorn13 on Jul 24, 2007 6:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Leinart is probably a head case.

Lets review 2005-2006 for "Mr. We were the better team":
He is probably still having flashbacks and migraines from that hit he took in the Rose Bowl. Probably has back spasms from when Rodrick Wright body-slammed him like a jr. cheeseburger. He probably has to talk weekly to a psychologist about that pick he threw to M. Griffin. Then he fell to 10 in the draft. Drafted by the Cardinals, no less. Then... Vince Young won ROY with Norm Chow as his OC.

That EA commercial with him playing the Rose Bowl, just made me realize how incredibly bitch-slapped Leinart got by 2005 and 2006. Can anyone say "Laces Out"?

Horns up, Okies Down.

by kicker on Jul 24, 2007 6:40 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Honest Opinion

How many members of the 2005 USC defense do you think get invited to Leinart's Christmas party?

When does football start again?

by bendj on Jul 25, 2007 9:52 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

He could start by excluding...

...whoever decided to not put Bush on the field for 4th & 2 and everything. Because freeing up Michael Huff to go tackle LenDale White turned out to be a sub-optimal decision.

Aside from that, I think the defense did about as well as could be expected to hold Texas to 41 points.

by DC Trojan on Jul 25, 2007 12:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why?

whoever decided to not put Bush on the field for 4th & 2 and everything. Because freeing up Michael Huff to go tackle LenDale White turned out to be a sub-optimal decision.

Having Bush on the field didn't work the first time they tried going for a 4th down, why would it work when Lendale was ripping off chunks of yards?

All signs pointed to needing an extra blocker with fresh legs in the play. By putting Bush next to White you have to take someone out, like a TE or fullback.
Petey has nothing to second guess. Every coach would make that same call all day.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Jul 25, 2007 1:42 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not every Coach

I think Greg Davis would have put Vince in the shotgun and let him have a run/pass option. Or maybe that is only on 4th and 5 with the MNC on the line.

by billb on Jul 25, 2007 3:09 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's a fair point

Still, IIRC there were a few articles after the game in which Huff said that he decided to ditch his assignment and go after White when he saw that Bush wasn't on the field. It's possible that a extra blocker might have worked for SC, but not putting in Bush effectively added a wrecking ball to the Texas defense at the line of scrimmage.

You'll note I'm not saying that they shouldn't have called the running play for White - it had been working until it didn't. Still, if you're going to play mad bastard football as Orson on EDSBS put it, why do something tedious like play the percentages at that point in the game?

by DC Trojan on Jul 25, 2007 4:08 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

ESPN The Mag article

I agree that Matt is probably a head case over the Rose Bowl. USC fan or not, hopefully anyone that read that horrific "journalism" piece he did for The Magazine cringed. Posing as a correspondent for a day, he actually asked several NFL GMs or coaches why he dropped so far on draft day. I'm embarrassed for him.

by blackdog81 on Jul 25, 2007 10:31 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

so i guess that means...

so i guess this means that those aren't really peterson's and leinert's real screen names on their respective commercials?

fucking losers.

McConaughey would have probably done that spot for free.

by cortexas on Jul 24, 2007 7:34 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

WTF indeed

This definitely gets the WTF moment of 2007 for me...forget Vick, Donaghy, and Bonds for a moment, we got our own sports crisis.

Why the hell does EA sports think UT fans need a wet dream about beating Peterson when we beat his ass the last two years (in REAL life)? That has to be one of the worst marketing ploys to date.

How did they pay Mr. Mueli...30 pieces of gold? Toughest acting job? You want to grind an ax Toby, try playing Robert Downey, Jr. in Less Than Zero and then we'll talk. You make me Sic'em Bear.

Here's your question du jour...how much money would you take to put a Sooner shirt on?

Next thing you'll tell me is Miss Texas is really a man.

Be nobody but yourself in a world that desperately wants you to be like everybody else.

by 54b on Jul 24, 2007 9:21 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Hah! True Dat, 54b

But I believe you mean 30 pieces of silver. Its hard for us Bears to make money at sports, so the only way to earn any $$ is to pose as other sports fans. Its a time-honored Waco tradition.

Learning about "Lee Jennings" is kinda like learning about the Tooth Fairy, if the TF was actually a 22-yr-old frat boy who actually knocked out your teeth and stole some money from you.

Sic 'Em? Why the hell not?

by BearMeat on Jul 24, 2007 9:44 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not to put too fine a point on it, but . . .

The name "Lee Jennings" is so perfectly Southern. You can just imagine the suits in the advertising department discussing what type of demographic they want to focus on.

"We need a name that evokes a white, Southern male: Lee, like General Robert E. Lee"

"Great idea, Bob"

"And a last name that is either English or Scotch-Irish in origin, like most white, southern names, like Jennings"

"Great idea, Jim"

"He'll need a slight southern accent too."

"Of course"

"For casting, any white Texan will do"

"Of course"

"This game is gonna make us a shit load of $$"

"Of course"

Sic 'Em? Why the hell not?

by BearMeat on Jul 24, 2007 9:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Toby Meuli?

Isn't he a soccer player that tried out for the Jets a few years back?

by mldatx on Jul 24, 2007 11:25 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I think

that would be Tony Meola, former Team USA goaltender. Or something like that.

...til Gabriel blows his horn

by BigTexBD on Jul 25, 2007 12:08 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

PB, I guess you're going to have to...

remove Lee as a facebook friend. Unless the Leinart comments put him back in your favor...

by meega on Jul 25, 2007 11:51 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

It's doctored

That was just how I imagined his Facebook page looking.

Woo MS Paint!

--PB--

by PB @ BON on Jul 25, 2007 1:32 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought so! Great work, PB!

He is what we call in Waco, a "Broseph":

A college educated, fraternity-oriented Caucasian male, usually ages 18-30, who spends his weekends wakeboarding/jetskiing and intentionally creating wakes from his speed boat to unset or flip crew shells, kayakers, and canooers; while doing so flashing the "hang-loose" hand gesture. (copied that from urban dictionary)

Sic 'Em? Why the hell not?

by BearMeat on Jul 25, 2007 1:34 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

don't forget

the frayed hat, acid wash designer jeans, and pooka shell necklace

by meega on Jul 25, 2007 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ad agency population

My first guess would have been: which university in (hint) Southern California is most likely to have alumni populating ad agency offices?

However, it appears that the ad agency in question is Wieden+Kennedy and their west coast office is in Portland. Which leads me to conclude that the Pac-10 conspiracy against the Big 12 (see, Oregon v. Oklahoma, 2006) is being run out of the northwest.

by DC Trojan on Jul 25, 2007 11:55 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs